Successful Blog

What’s More Important: Intention or Perception?

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A Guest Post by JennyDecki

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First, I’d like to thank Liz for letting me write a guest post. Even though we’ve only talked a few times and met once, if she called me at 3am and needed a ride home after an awesome party I wasn’t even invited to I would jump in my car and drive her home faster than, well, as fast as I could throw on some clothes and get there. So even if we don’t have coffee every other Sunday, I consider her a friend and I’m just happier knowing she’s part of my world. (Cue cheesy Disney music – bonus points for you if you know what Disney movie that is).

What’s More Important: Intention or Perception?

Today’s question is one most people don’t consider. Everyone keeps talking about transparency and authenticity and what you should do and who you should be but then you shouldn’t be this and you shouldn’t be that and only The Bloggess can cuss because she’s really, really funny to a lot of people when she does.

There are so many things that you’re being told you should be when you blog that you may not even be sure what your message is or who you are yet, I mean, I turned 35 last week and I *just* figured out what I want to be when I grow up. (35 is an interesting number. My kids think I’m a dinosaur but my grandmother thinks my life hasn’t begun yet. I’m both too old AND too young depending on the demographic being surveyed.)

Take this video as my exhibit A. I’m entered into a competition. I need to win. I need you (yes you, not some other reader, YOU!) to watch this,

 

NOW go to JennyDecki’s Mamavation Application and vote for @Jennydecki — Just check that box in the sidebar — once every 24 hours from now until 7/12 at 8pm CST. If I had my way you’d set an alarm on your phone to remind you.

It’s really important to me. If you watched the video and you already know why…

Authenticity Can Be Frightening

Now, obviously I’m not making up the fact that I am, in fact, fat. But transparency is making a video showing I’m fat. My message is what’s authentic, because even if I hired a plus-sized model with a less-large but still-overweight body to deliver that message it would still be authentic.

But here’s the kicker. The absolute scariest part of making that video is my fear of what other people would think of it. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re being transparent and it doesn’t matter if your message is authentic. What matters once you hit “Submit” is what other people will think of your video when they see it.

Putting out a video that says, “I’m fat, I want to lose weight, I want to win this contest to have intimate relations over the phone with a nutritionist.” is frightening.

There’s the fear that some jerk is going to send the video to all his friends, then they’ll all come calling with horrific comments, calling me names I haven’t heard since Jr. High and laughing at me.

… and Tests Your Beliefs

Even better, I’m at the edges of a few fat acceptance communities and some people believe that attempting to lose weight for the sake of losing weight is wrong. I know some of those people and they’re really great people.

… and I believe in size acceptance too, because – skinny or fat – people deserve dignity and the right to be judged on what happens when they open their mouth and talk to you, not when they open their mouth and put food into it.

The Moral of the Story: Be as sure as you can be about what you believe before you share it with the world. Once you share it you can’t take it back.You just have to know your message is yours and you are allowed to have opinions, make decisions, and share those with others. Even if you disagree with your neighbor, or Liz, or me, or the guy who runs the local Chamber of Commerce.

So help me out. Because if I don’t win — yeah I tried and that’s great — but I’m really more of a “winning” kind of person.

How to Help

I was told before I was chosen as a finalist, “You’ll have to do something amazing to win. Your social media contacts won’t be enough.” Please, even if you don’t support me…even if you don’t support weight loss…even if you don’t give care at all. Help me prove that social media is enough – because social media IS amazing.

Step 1: Go vote for me (@jennydecki) at http://bit.ly/teamjen

Step 2: Post on Facebook and Tweet for me: Watch the video and vote @jennydecki every 24 hours from now ’till 7/12 at 8pmCST http://bit.ly/teamjen PLZ RT!

Step 3: Send an email, write a blog post, or use the social media or traditional media avenue of your choice and link to this post so they can help me, too.

Step 4: Have we met? No? Feel free to follow me on Twitter @jennydecki and I’ll follow you back. I’m sure it will be a pleasure to meet you.

Is Intention More Important than Perception?

Of course intention is most important because it’s the only one you have ANY control over. Perception? You have to let the chips fall where they may. If you write things with the intention of trying to create a particular perception and you fail, you can’t really stand up and say, “Oh, I want a do-over because that wasn’t really me.” Nope.

Better to be stuck with people knowing you for who you are than people not even knowing you and still thinking you’re a jackass. The best part is when you are yourself and you stand up for something you find support in the oddest places. Like here. Or here.

And when a fat woman figures out her passion is health and there’s a runner trapped under all that excess weight, what the hell other option does she have?

Need permission? You have mine. I give you permission to stand up for something. To stand in between a rock and a hard place and just stand there. Own it.

Thank you for your time, I appreciate it more than you know. Thanks again, Liz. Don’t lose my number, you may need it after a party someday!

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If you don’t know JennyDecki, you should. Besides being a brilliant marketer, Jenny also blogs.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

You Don’t Have To Raise Your Hand To Make A Comment

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By Terez Howard
As a blogger, you recognize the importance of following your favorite bloggers. You know that they can offer you the insight and direction you need, not only to become a better writer, but also a better business person.
If you’re like me, you’ve probably read through a host of different blogs from how to write effective copy to useful ways to promote your blog to marketing tactics for your products or services. I’ve been interested in online work for about two years now, and to this day, I’m still amazed at the influx of free information.

As long as I’m willing to do a little searching, I find that I can get reliable answers to all of my business questions. I have yet to ask a question that hasn’t been responded to on someone’s blog.

That’s what we bloggers are here for, right? To provide quality content. But when we read other people’s helpful information at no cost to us, what do we do to add to the discussion?

Questions, comments, concerns

I feel like I’m back in my school days here. Think about this. When the teacher delves into geophysics and you hear Charlie Brown lingo, you should ask for clarification. So, when you read a blog that doesn’t explain a topic clearly, don’t be embarrassed to ask the blogger for additional insight.

Did you ever have the teacher that had each student go around the room and name their favorite something? I think I was in elementary school when we named our favorite animals in front of the class. (At the time, my answer was cats). I remember thinking this exercise was stupid and a waste of time. Yes, I thought this as a 7-year-old.

I didn’t know it all, either. My teacher was preparing us to do at least one thing: socialize. Blogs are a key component of social media. Commenting about our favorite something from a post or sharing some other personal knowledge generates discussion. It makes this social media social.

Teachers make mistakes. When I saw a teacher’s math problem didn’t add up – literally – I let her know quietly and tactfully. I was not about to risk my parents making a visit to the school to hear about their mouthy daughter.

When we see a problem with a blogger’s data, we should let the writer know and do so quietly and tactfully. Even if it isn’t a technical error, we should air our concerns because once again, we get to engage in a social conversation.

What’s the point?

Questions, comments and concerns help us to learn more. That’s why our teachers throughout our years and years of school encouraged them so much. We remember what we talk about. We make connections. We build on this foundation.

Not to mention, the teacher feels his job has been worthwhile when he sees his students responding to his direction. Bloggers, too, feel that sense of worth when people respond to their posts.

Of course, these responses must only contribute to a meaningful discussion. None of that “Nice post” or “Good job” stuff. Sure, it’s nice to be complimented, but a few dozen of those a day can amount to nothing more than spam. I cannot tell you how many spammy comments I don’t approve per day and from the exact same website!

Since I don’t like words full of nothing, why would I give them to someone else? We bloggers have to stick together and truly talk to one another. We can learn so much from one another, but only if we open our mouths, or rather move our fingers, and converse.

How do you engage your readers in conversation?

 

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Collaboration: How to Bring Back that Brand New Blog Feeling Again

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A Guest Post by Alexis Bonari

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If a blog is suffering from low readership, repetitive posts, or a general lack of innovation, chances are that it also lacks collaborative strategies. Some bloggers may be hesitant to even explore the idea of collaboration, foreseeing a loss of readership if they point out a better blog. However, experience shows the opposite: readers enjoy being introduced to new bloggers, so they’ll keep coming back for more.

Collaboration in Action

As an example of collaboration in action, take a look at remarkablogger and problogger as resources on blogger collaboration.

Setting Collaborative Readership Goals

From a remarkablogger post comes the idea of setting specific goals among bloggers for increasing their readership. A group of personal finance bloggers, inspired by a single challenge posted on Financial Samurai, agreed to increase their Alexa readership ratings within six months. Some aimed to join the ranks of the top 200,000; others challenged themselves to reach the top 50,000. But all 49 personal finance bloggers who answered the challenge observed significant increases in readership due to the collaborative nature of the goals they had set for themselves. One blog even managed to increase its rating from #1,432,262 to #215,606.

How did they manage this?

  1. They started right away without procrastinating. They didn’t make excuses about needing to think it over or question the feasibility of the task. They just joined up.
  2. They tracked something tangible. Whether it’s page rankings, readership, number of Tweets, or any other popularity indicator, this is an important factor in goal-oriented blogger collaboration.
  3. A concrete and desirable goal was set. Without focus, collaboration loses some of its efficacy.
  4. Keeping it casual enabled these bloggers to just “let the magic happen” as members of the challenge group created blog badges and set up tracking pages for collaborative commentary.
  5. They promoted each other. Small increases in readership added up for everyone and created a more synergistic partnership among bloggers.

Fresh Ideas for Effective Blogging Collaboration

A refreshing perspective characterizes problogger’s post the subject of collaborative blogging as a way to combat writer’s block. Recommendations include

  • guest blogging,
  • blog swaps,
  • joint posts,
  • interviews,
  • joint blogs,
  • joining a blog network,
  • chatting on IM or e-mail,
  • and participating in discussion forums.

    • Trying a blog swap (switching blogs for a day with another blogger) or joining up with another blogger to write interview posts about each other can liven up a boring blog. There’s no way to lose with these helpful strategies, so win-win collaboration makes immediate improvements for the savvy blogger.

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    What collaboration ideas have you helped you get back that brand blog feeling and reach for newer higher goals?

    ———-

    — Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org, researching areas of online universities . In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

    Thanks, Alexis! You’ve cited two of the best blogging collaborators I know!

    –ME “Liz” Strauss
    Work with Liz on your business!!

    It’s the people and the great information inside that make me a proud affiliate of …

    third-tribe-marketing

Cool Tool Review: Chartbeat

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Todd Hoskins Reviews Tools for Business

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: Chartbeat
A Review by Todd Hoskins

If you’re not using web analytics right now, you need to be. When Google Analytics launched as a free service a couple years ago it allowed publishers and bloggers of every variety to know where web traffic is coming from and what their visitor trends are. It doesn’t matter whether you are a blogger with five subscribers or an eCommerce company. In it’s simplest form, it’s a copied and pasted line of code that requires no technical skills to set up.

Site visits and metrics such as time-on-site provide you with information. But visits don’t necessarily convert into sales, customers, or loyal readers, and time-on-site may be skewed by bathroom breaks and open browser windows. The information becomes valuable when it is actionable.

Here’s where Chartbeat has an edge. But warning: it’s addictive. Real-time statistics detailing what people are doing on a site right now has prompted me to change content on the fly and see how people react. Though it can be sheer entertainment, the real value is in being able to understand what is compelling to your readers.

Measuring traffic has long been a tantalizing trap. Counting people, whether it’s a political rally or eyeballs in advertising, is something we all immediately understand. How many visitors did we get yesterday? In our store? On our site? But there’s lots of ways to get people in the door or get them to click on a link. The key is bringing the best merchandise (content) to the front of the store, and then continue to either source more of the same, or take the time to educate the visitor on why something deserves to occupy prime real estate. Traffic is necessary, but engagement has often been ignored.

Oh, engagement. What a disputed word. With Chartbeat, they are getting more frequent “pings” from the visitor in order to understand what is happening multiple times per minute instead of the one ping like the doorbell announcing, “Someone’s here!” Engagement then can be captured, for example, with scroll depth. Is the visitor quickly viewing content and moving on, or are they taking time to scroll down the page.

On what pages is this occurring?
Where is the traffic coming from?
Where are they going?

Take a look for yourself:

For $10 a month, this is a steal. If you’re hesitant, get Google Analytics set up, and then sign up for a free trial with Chartbeat as well. Compare and let me know what you think.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 4/5 – Even Fortune 500 companies are using Chartbeat in addition to Omniture. There’s an API as well.

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – Want to be nimble? Web analytics are necessary.

Personal Value: 2/5 – Google Analytics is usually good enough unless your a geek like me.

Subtract The $5 From Brobdingnagian — Say What Now?

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By Terez Howard

This blog is brobdingnagian.

Are you scratching your head, wondering why I would talk like this? I don’t talk like this.

Have you already headed over to a dictionary website to see what brobdingnagian means? That’s where I found its meaning. My Microsoft Word Processor doesn’t even recognize it as a word.

Have you made it this far in my post without pulling out your hair? Congratulations!

Deduct $5 now

If you strip this 14-letter word of its pomp and circumstance, you get this: big. Brobdingnagian is one of those $5 words that do not belong in a blog post and can be substituted for a word worth a dime.

Why should $5 words be avoided?

  1. It takes unnecessary time for a reader to look them up. Most people have limited time and want to read through a blog without spending undue time with a dictionary in hand or in another tab.
  2. Brobdingnagian words are likely to send readers searching for more reader-friendly blogs. Who wants to read a blog that needs an interpreter? Not me.
  3. If you’re making a call to action in your blog, how can your readers act on something they do not understand?

I’m not saying that you have to dumb your writing down. There is no hard and fast rule that says you have to stick to words no longer than seven letters. People do have to understand what you’re trying to say. If they don’t, they are not going to stick around on your blog.

When I wrote for the newspaper, my boss told us that our readers’ level was that of fifth graders. He told us they would not continue to buy papers if we wrote at a higher level. I always remembered that because I used to write poetry, and I liked to pepper my poems with $5 words. That was fine for something personal, but for the public, it was unacceptable.

Explanations for technical terminology

Most of us writers don’t have a problem getting rid of complicated, unheard of words. However, we might be involved in a field that uses several acronyms and abbreviations. I didn’t know that a-s stood for all-sung.

There also might be words that are common in a certain field, like quadrille. But to laymen, that means absolutely nothing.

If your audience knows the acronyms and technical terms you use, you don’t necessarily have to explain them every time. But if you think you just might get a newbie or novice, I suggest you provide an explanation the first time you introduce the word in a post. After that, you don’t have to mention it again.

If you don’t want to do that, be sure to provide the resources for newcomers to your blog, so they can easily locate the meanings of words like concerto grosso and obbligato. The easiest way to do this is to add a glossary.

Add high quality

After you subtract all the $5 words, what are you left with? If it’s not much, you’re doing something wrong. Blogs should serve their readers as a well of resourceful and/or entertaining information. They should quench their readers’ thirst for knowledge.

When you provide your audience with a usable message, they won’t want a refund on your 10-cent words. They’ll take it to the bank.

What do you do to make sure people understand what you’re writing?

—
Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas . You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger

Thanks, Terez!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!